Poem of the Week – When Grapes Turn To Wine

When grapes turn
to wine, they long for our ability to change.

When stars wheel
around the North Pole,
they are longing for our growing consciousness.

King David: Ascendance and Stewardship

Poets, storytellers, and singers wax poetic about the glory of kings. We read verse after beautiful verse about their high seated thrones, golden crowns, glorious battles, and beautiful concubines. Anointed by their deity of choice, these rulers overcome obstacles with bravery, nobility, and the adoration of their people. The legends we tell about them makes these kings the very embodiment of all that we could aspire to. Legends, however, are often neglectful of one truth: these rulers are fallible human beings. They are frail, prone to make mistakes, and fall victim to their own desires.

Poem of the Week – Mango Seedling

 

Through glass window pane
Up a modern office block
I saw, two floors below, on wide-jutting
Concrete canopy a mango seedling newly sprouted
Purple, two-leafed, standing on its burst
Black yolk. It waved brightly to sun and wind
Between rains—daily regaling itself
On seed-yams, prodigally.

Controlling a Narrative

Words have power. The right arrangement of words has the ability to grant life, or take it away. Words can hurt, words can heal, words can save, and words can condemn. It is often said that when we communicate with each other, what we say has far less impact on the listener than how we say it. This claim is evidenced in our everyday interactions with the world. Politicians perform grandiose speeches filled with carefully selected words that are packed with subtext. News outlets choose terminology that resonates with us on a visceral level, telling us exactly how disgusted to feel about tonight’s tragic events. In our personal relationships we manage our interactions with other people in order to project the image of ourselves that we want others to believe. Whether we realize it or not, we all struggle to craft and control narratives every day.

Poem of the Week – Noh Lickle Twang

 

Me glad fe se’s you come back bwoy,
But lawd yuh let me dung,
Me shame o’ yuh soh till all o’
Me proudness drop a grung.

The Hinilawod Epic: A Hero Comes Home

The world is full of beautiful things, so many in fact that none of us will be able to experience all of them in the short time we have on this earth. Some of us go mad with the thought that there could always be something better for them than what they have. There will always be a nicer car, a more expensive shirt, more stylish shoes, or a seemingly more attractive significant other. The desire to acquire more than we have is born in the consumer culture that permeates our society. There is a constant flow of advertisements, films, celebrity news, fashion updates, etc. that remind us that our value is predicated on the things we own. We are bombarded with messages that tell us that there is always more, but we are never taught about the consequences of overreaching.

Poem of the Week – Let America be America Again

 

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Poem of the Week – King Heroin

 

Ladies and gentlemen
Fellow Americans
Lady Americans
This is James Brown

I wanna talk to you about one of our
Most deadly, killers in the country today
I had a dream the other night, and I
Was sittin’ in my living room